No state money for Panthers stadium upgrades

The Panthers and the City of Charlotte have a deal that would result in upgrades to Bank of America Stadium. But to the extent that deal relies upon state money, the deal is about to fall apart.

According to Jim Morrill of the Charlotte Observer, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory said Monday that state money won’t be available to the project.

“We don’t have the money in the state to address that issue,” McCrory said. “I have never been actually asked for the $62 million, nor do we have it.”

Panthers president Danny Morrison apparently isn’t ready to take “we don’t have the money” as an answer.

“We have met with state officials multiples times,” Morrison said in a statement issued to the Observer. “They have always been supportive of our efforts and indicated the importance of the Panthers to both the State and Charlotte. We are hopeful that ultimately these assurances translate into support for the team.”

The deal between the team and the city would result in the team agreeing to stay in town for at least 15 more years. Without that agreement, the Panthers would in theory potentially relocate — even though owner Jerry Richardson owns the stadium.

Sure, Richardson (or whoever buys the team from him or his estate) would be abandoning the stadium. At some point, however, a deal proposed by a new city would make the prospect of leaving attractive, even if it meant the Panthers would be boarding up their current home and leaving.

I’m sure Jerry Richardson is happy. He doesn’t want taxes to be raised and a smaller government. Oh wait, he wants the tax payers to subsides him and that’s fine. I forgot money can go from the bottom to the top but not the other way around.

Enough with this BS. The taxpayer is overwhelmed. This is ultimately a rich mans sport. Let them pay for it. Or let the fans of the Panthers pay for it or find fans that will. But leave the guy holding down two jobs to pay his mortgage out of the equation.

I sometimes wonder if the NFL even wants a team in LA. By holding out a team relocating over any city that doesn’t give into billionaire owners, the NFL essentially blackmails money out of taxpayers. To a large degree, the team owners are little more than shakedown artists today.

The NFL/owners are constantly embarassing themselves with crap like this. They were just in a fight with each other over a billion…not the billion but the last billion…and a year later they are gonna ask for $62 million in tax payer money to fund a stadium!?!?

Hey Jerry we know the truth. You made it very clear last year. You are not hurting for money and we the people are. You or any other owner want a stadium then you can go right ahead and build/upgrade it all by yourself.

Charlotte needs to learn the Panthers are strictly a Charlotte thing and not a state of NC or SC thing. Charlotte benfits from the team so they can let Jerry shake the city down for all the money he can get from them. Leave the states out of it!

diehardcatz says
They are not called the Charlotte Panthers. Its’ the CAROLINA Panthers! If you support a losing team that’s 2000 miles from you, like the Cowboys, that’s your problem.
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That’s the point Panther fan, they should be called the Charlotte Panthers because the only people that benefit from the team or give a crap about the Panthers, are people who live in Charlotte. That’s why you have more visitor fans at home games than Panther fans.

Just so you know, the Cowboys didn’t finish with a losing record like the Panthers have for 3 years in a row now and Dallas beat them last year too.